No matter how strongly I want it to be true, I am not sure I should believe these talks. Rumors all over the net talk that the Pre will be available as early as the middle of February, which sounds impressive and impossible. Yeah, Palm said “we’re doing our best” but getting it on the market so early? Probably not. Recently, the co-CEO of RIM (you know, the Canadians that make BlackBerry phones) mentioned that it is absolutely normal to rush a cool phone and get it out buggy and with problems, but this is not what Palm should do. The first WebOS smartphone should come out when it is absolutely ready and show why this system is superior to its rivals, why Palm is Palm and why they’ll continue to be one of the major players in the smart phone market.

P.S. anybody thinking that February 15, 2009 may actually be the official announcement day of the GSM version of the Palm Pre? It’s the day before the MWC 2009 starts, so it is very likely to see the GSM Pre there – we’ll be at the show, so stay tuned!

Last week, Apple’s Tim Cook mentioned that the Cuppertino based company likes competition, but not one that is ripping their intellectual property (IP) off. Although he didn’t mention exact company, many noted that he may point to Palm, as the WebOS has some fancy iPhone-like gestures. Palm doesn’t stay still, and its spokeperson, Lynn Fox said:

 Palm has a long history of innovation that is reflected in our products and robust patent portfolio (31 pages of patents in Google Patent Search), and we have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space …. If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.

Obviously, Palm is sure abouts its features. 

source, via

Social networks are for friends, and the guys who prepare the WebOS and the Palm Pre are our best friends, aren’t they? Palm’s page at Facebook offers its readers to ask questions and Palm’s buddies give answers – sweet.  For example, after they were asked why there is no memory expansion slot, Palm answered that it is in order to keep the design as sexy as possible:

‘Design’ was the highest goal on the Palm Pre project. The phone has to look and function great in the hand and up against the face on a call. The decision to include or not include expandable storage is an easy one when design is the highest priority. The physical size of the device would have been compromised if we added another physical component to Pre. Just a millimeter can seriously impact the curvature of the design in a way that minimizes the design intent. We wanted to maintain a slick curved slider design without building out too much thickness. When you look at the two parts of the product and see how thin they really are, you may be amazed that we were able to fit everything in. And yes, all the stuff does fit.

See the rest of the discussion here

via

Every kid knows that the WebOS is the best invention after sliced bread. However, in case you want to make the Palm Pre even more smart, there may be an option to add an additional operating system to it. There are reports that after a “Jailbrake”, the Pre will be able to offer you the choice to boot either WebOS or Google’s Android OS, thus providing with you the two best systems for phones. Another option will be to run the Android inside the WebOS itself, as an application.

Unfortunately, it is not sure that once the Palm Pre is launched, there will really be somebody to port the Android. But who cares, it will come with a better OS straight out of the box.

more info

In an interview about Palm, Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners pointed that the iPhone, the G1 and BlackBerry phones are good, but not nearly as capable as the Palm Pre and its WebOS. Showing off its smart toy, McNamee revealed details that were not known until now – showing how smart the WebOS really is. Palm Synergy will not only show you information from different applications when you search for it, but will also make sure you see it. For example, knowing that you have a meeting at the office at 1PM, it will remind you that based on your GPS position you are too far and will get late. Of course, you’ll want to call to warn your colleagues, but there will be no need – Pre’s WebOS will already have offered you to send emails instead of you. Smart, isn’t it? I cannot even imagine what else it will be able to do.

source, via

Nothing official, but PalmPreBlog posted an email response by someone from Vodafone UK , saying that the carrier is in early negotiations with Palm:

With regrets, I can not currently share any information regarding the Palm Pre handset; we are still in early negotiation with Palm, but nothing is solid. I can double check next week but as of this point in time that is all I know.

Palm Europe’s VP of sales already officially announced that U.K will get the Pre in the second half of 2009. Going to Vodafone doesn’t sound so strange, especially having in mind that the BlackBerry Storm they offer is definitely not the iPhone killer everybody is looking for, and Pre is expected to really be.

source

Palm’s Andrew Shebanow posted on his blog a question about what the developers would like to see in the WebOS and after receiving lots of responses, Palm decided to create a separate official blog about this – the Palm Developer Network Blog.

This is your chance to let Palm know what you would and would not like to see on the webOS platform, in particular in areas related to:

* Application installation and updating
* Ecommerce (purchase, trials, coupons, etc.)
* Security (code signing, testing, anti-phishing, malware, etc)
* Browsing and searching for applications

Check it out here

via IntoMobile

We received news from a credible source that BestBuy Mobile will be getting an exclusive deal with Sprint for the Palm Pre release. For 60 days the number one consumer electronics retailer will be the only place where you can get your hands on the Palm Pre, besides Sprint of course. This partnership makes sense seeing the Sprint also launched the Samsung Instinct exclusively with them during the summer of 2008. This liaison will benefit all three of the companies in the deal. Best Buy will get its hands first which will make it the place to get the device. Sprint may come back to win over customers with Palm’s formidable touch phone.

Citi analyst Jim Suva previously suggested that you should “Sell” Palm stocks, but after the WebOS and Pre were announced, now updated his statement to “Hold”. He guesses that up to 1.5 million Pre phones will be sold in the first year, and that is his guess only for the U.S. and Sprint. We hope it will be at least 3 million units globally! 

Our estimates move significantly higher on the strength of the Pre; however, we still forecast operating and net income losses for the next few fiscal years. Although we are very optimistic on unit volumes, we are taking a fairly conservative view on ASPs and margins. While reaction was overwhelmingly positive (and rightfully so in our view), very little was asked or offered on Palm’s pricing strategy for the Pre. We think Palm will soon have to offer details on expected ASP for the Pre and will likely revisit our estimates in the future. That said, even with a fairly conservative ASP and margin expectation, our forecasted operating losses narrow dramatically and we would expect that
trend to be echoed in consensus estimate.

more at ZDNet

An exec of the Australian carrier Telstra said that that they’ll get a phone that is better than the Palm Pre; the WebOS phone was announced just a few days ago and is already the one to compare the cool new smart phones with!!! Telstra’s smart phone will be from HTC and will run on Android with custom HTC Linux software. The only thing said about specs is that it will have a screen bigger than on any other HTC phone, which means more than the 3.8-inches found on the HD. The mysterious device is expected to be announced at the MWC 2009 in Barcelona next month, but we hope we will see WebOS models there as well!

via wmpoweruser